Heritage Quest Online (Library Card Barcode Required)
- A database consisting of the full text of local histories, family histories, and Federal Census indexes and images 1790-1910. This is accessible from any computer using your CCLD library card.
Ancestry Library Edition - Ancestry Library Edition can be accessed from Steele Memorial Library computers. Ancestry delivers billions of records in census data, vital records, directories, photos, and more.
Historical Newspapers: New York Collection - Full text searchable and browsable collection of New York State newspapers. Elmira Star Gazette from 1891, Ithaca Journal from 1914, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle from 1871, White Plains Journal News from 1889, New York Daily News from 1920, Poughkeepsie Journal from 1785, and the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin from 1904.
Newspapers.com Library Edition - An extensive database that provides online access to 4,000+ historical newspapers. Dating from the early 1700s into the 2000s, Newspapers.com Library Edition contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles to small local newspapers in the United States and other countries. This is accessible from any computer using your CCLD library card.
Fold3™ Library Edition - Provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos and documents of the men and women who served. It contains millions of records from world-class archives, many of which are exclusively available on Fold3. This is accessible from any computer using your CCLD library card.
History Commons - African American Newspapers, American County Histories, Civil War Collections, and more. This is accessible from any computer through this link.
Blog of Genealogy & Local History at the Steele Memorial Library- Keep up with our newest additions, resources, and news in the Genealogy and Local History Department
Chemung County Sanborn Maps online - "The Library of Congress's Sanborn Fire Insurance Maps Online Checklist provides a searchable database of the fire insurance maps published by the Sanborn Map Company housed in the collections of the Geography and Map Division. The online checklist is based upon the Library's 1981 publication Fire Insurance Maps in the Library of Congress and will be continually updated to reflect new acquisitions." For more information on how to read these maps, visit the LOC page, ABOUT THIS COLLECTION.
Password Protected: CCLD's 1931 Sanborn Map of Elmira NY. Please enter the first 6 digits of your library card when prompted to access this item. Access to these digital images is graciously provided by EDR Lightbox. All Rights Reserved.
Cyndi's List - An excellent clearing house of genealogical web sites.
FamilySearch Internet Genealogy Service 
- Records span billions of names across hundreds of collections--including birth, marriage, death, probate, land, military, IGI extracted, and more. Currently Family Search has NY State census for 1855, 1865 (browse only), 1875, 1892, 1905, 1915, and 1925.The Steele Memorial Library is an Affiliate Library with FamilySearch. Some records not able to be viewed at a computer at home may be viewed here at the library from our computers.
Genealogy Forms – link to free printable genealogy forms including ancestral chart, family group sheets, and more.
Find a Genealogist - A way to find genealogists with many different locations and specialties. Service provided by the Board for Certification of Genealogists. This is not an official endorsement by the Steele Memorial Library. All genealogists are independent.
PERSI
- PERSI is the premier subject index for genealogy and local history periodicals. Using this valuable resource provides citations to readily-available periodical sources.
RootsWeb - A highly renowned genealogy site with surname archives.
Social Security Death Index - Name index to deaths recorded by the Social Security Administration beginning in 1962.
Soundex Calculator - Use this calculator to figure out the soundex code for your name.
U.S. GenWeb - The GenWeb site is organized by state and then you can browse by county.
VitalChek - VitalChek Network has an internet, voice and fax network setup to help people get a certified copy of a birth certificate, death certificate, marriage certificate and other vital records.
Historical Newspapers: New York Collection - Full text searchable and browsable collection of New York State newspapers. Elmira Star Gazette from 1891, Ithaca Journal from 1914, Rochester Democrat & Chronicle from 1871, White Plains Journal News from 1889, New York Daily News from 1920, Poughkeepsie Journal from 1785, and the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin from 1904.
Chronicling America - Online newspapers by the Library of Congress. Also includes a full list of total newspapers for regions in the United States, whether they are digitized or not, and holdings information.
Elephind - Like a Google search for historical, digitized newspapers. Search, for free, across many newspaper sites simultaneously, rather than having to visit each site separately. By clicking on the Elephind.com search result that interests you you'll go directly to the newspaper site which hosts that story.
Fulton History - A hobby site with many New York State digital newspapers.Google News Archive - Google News Archive is an extension of Google News providing free access to scanned archives of newspapers and links to other newspaper archives on the web, both free and paid. Some of the news archives date back to 18th century.
Newspapers.com Library Edition - An extensive database that provides online access to 4,000+ historical newspapers. Dating from the early 1700s into the 2000s, Newspapers.com Library Edition contains full runs and portions of runs of well-known, regional and state titles to small local newspapers in the United States and other countries. This is accessible from any computer using your CCLD library card.
NYS Historic Newspapers - The NYS Historic Newspapers project provides free online access to a wide range of newspapers chosen to reflect New York's unique history. To search the entire collection, use the Search Tab. Or, click on a county to search or browse geographically.
Obituary Daily Times - Volunteers contribute indexes of obituaries from their local papers.
Ancestry.com New York - New York State records from ancestry.com are available free to New Yorkers. Create a free ancestry New York account.
NY GenWeb - Free online resources for genealogical research. Organized by county. Part of the USGenWeb project. Note: Chemung County page on this site is the former Chemung County Section of Joyce Tice’s Tri-Counties Website.
NYHeritage - Primary source materials from Over 350 libraries, museums, archives, and other cultural institutions in New York. Free.
New York City Digital Vital Records - New York City Municipal Archives’ digitized collection of publicly available New York City birth, marriage, and death records. An ongoing project, 9,318,625 digitized records from the late 1800s to the early 1900s are now available online as of March 2022
New York State Archives - Information about New York State Historical Documents and Public Records. Search the holdings of the state library and state archives as well as historical documents catalog records for more than 25,000 archives and manuscripts collections housed in most New York repositories.
New York State Death Records 1957-1963 - Official death records from New York State Department of Health. This site allows you to search for death records plus download these records for genealogical purposes.
New York State Birth Index - These are scanned images of the index to births that occurred in the state of New York, originally compiled by the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH). These records were obtained by the non-profit activist group Reclaim The Records through a New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.
New York State Death Index- These are scanned images of the index to deaths that occurred in the state of New York, originally compiled by the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH). These records were obtained by the non-profit activist group Reclaim The Records through a New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.
New York State Marriage Index - These are scanned images of the index to marriages that occurred in the state of New York, originally compiled by the New York State Department of Health (NYS DOH). These records were obtained by the non-profit activist group Reclaim The Records through a New York State Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request.
New York Town Historians - There are over 1600 local government historians in New York State. It is often difficult to find a listing for an historian in every town, village, city, county and borough. APHNYS provides these listings for historians the Empire State.
New York City Death Index - From the German Genealogy Group this database currently contains the indexes to Birth, Marriage and Death records from 1862 to 1948 for the five boroughs of New York City (Bronx, Kings, Manhattan, Queens and Richmond).
Reclaim the Records - A not-for-profit group of genealogists, historians, researchers, and open government advocates. They identify important genealogical records sets that ought to be in the public domain, fight for their release via FOIL requests and court cases. They then digitize everything and put it all online for free, without any paywalls or usage restrictions. NYS records
Painted Hills Genealogy Society - A comprehensive locally produced genealogy site covering the entire Painted Hills Area of Western New York and Northwestern Pennsylvania. Including the Pennsylvania Counties of McKean and Potter plus the New York State Counties of Allegany, Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, and Steuben.
Civil War Soldiers & Sailors - The Civil War Soldiers and Sailors System (CWSS) is a database containing information about the men who served in the Union and Confederate armies during the Civil War. Other information on the site includes histories of Union and Confederate regiments, links to descriptions of significant battles, and selected lists of prisoner-of-war records and cemetery records, which will be amended over time.
Fold3™ Library Edition - Provides convenient access to US military records, including the stories, photos and documents of the men and women who served. It contains millions of records from world-class archives, many of which are exclusively available on Fold3. This is accessible from any computer using your CCLD library card.
Forms for Military Service Records at the National Archives - This site provides information about obtaining military service records and family history records from the National Archives in Washington, D.C.
Chemung County Historical Society - The CCHS operates two cultural repositories, the Chemung Valley History Museum and the Booth Library.
ChemungHistory - Website of Elmira Historian Diane Janowski.
Elmira History Forge - HistoryForge combines historic maps and photos with census records of the people who lived in Elmira, NY, creating a unique way to visualize the history of this community in the early 1900s.
Elmira Prison Camp - Site of the history of Elmira's Civil War Prison.
Friends of the Elmira Civil War Prison Camp - The Friends of Elmira Civil War Prison Camp is a non-profit 503c based in Elmira, New York. It is the mission of the Friends of the Elmira Civil War Prison Camp to protect and preserve the history of the Civil War in Elmira, Chemung County and surrounding areas and to educate the public about that history.